The Artes Mundi 6 shortlisted artists were announced towards the end of 2013, and to accompany the opening of the exhibition on the 24th October 2014, here’s a look at the exhibition itself with high expectations once again. The bi-annual celebration of contemporary artists that makes up the prize is definitely one to add to your calendar if you’re not already familiar with it and to give you a little bit more info, here’s our take on the artist shortlist and details on the grand opening at Wales’ National Museum of Art in Cardiff.
The shortlist itself has been pared down from 800 entries from a total of 70 countries to the final nine shortlisted artists, with one of the nine a joint entry to the competition from Karen Mirza and Brad Butler, who have been working together since 1998. The decisions were made by another team of two, as the invited shortlist adjudicators, Adam Budak and Sabine Schaschl, worked together to review the huge body of work and to select the nine finalists.
Each of the artists will receive a £4,000 prize for making it through to be included in the exhibition, which will run until the 22nd February 2015, and the finalist will be awarded the £40,000 prize for taking the Artes Mundi 6 No. 1 spot. However, the announcement for the winner won’t arrive until we’re well into the 17-week exhibition at the Cardiff museum. It has been scheduled to be announced by the panel of independent judges on the 22nd January 2014, exactly a month before its close.
Artes Mundi 6, 2014 shortlisted artists:
- Carlos Bunga (Portugal) – Carlos combines painting and sculpture on an architectural scale to disseminate dialogue on society and the inequalities the intersect humanity.
- Omar Fast (Isreal) – using high production value filming to blur the lines between fiction and reality in left-field interviews.
- Theaster Gates (USA) – social responsibility enshrouds Gates’ sculpture, installation and performance to present life as art and art as life.
- Sanja Iveković (Croatia) – gender inequality, power, the consumer culture and collective memory have all come under the gaze of Sanja’s filmmaking, photomontage and performance art.
- Ragnar Kjartansson (Iceland) – Kjartansson brings together a wide variety of artistic expression to create an emotive connection and response from his audience.
- Sharon Lockhart (USA) – moving and still imagery is used by Lockhart to share her collaborations and the often recurring theme of strong female subjects.
- Renata Lucas (Brazil) – Renata looks at the influence of the built environment on our behaviour and psyche by altering them and capturing the results for audience post-analysis, as well as to show how changes there can restructure social structures.
- Renzo Martens (The Netherlands) – arguably the most extreme artist in the shortlist, Martens films himself in satirical documentaries that see him placing himself in the thick of the fray in war torn countries.
- Karen Mirza and Brad Butler (UK) – an artistic collaboration that focuses on collaboration itself to produce questioning films, installations and performances.
Read our Artes Mundi 6 review to find out more about the exhibition.
